Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Thirsty Thursday

Pat Burrell - Heineken - A case of Heineken in the state of PA will run you more than 25 bucks, pretty expensive for a generic, mass-produced lager beer. It's not horrible, but in my opinion, it's terribly overpriced. They have flashy advertising that portrays Heineken as the "hip" beer and cans of beer that look like kegs (so radical, dude!) - so it appeals to the yuppies AND the chug-a-luggers who can't get enough kegged beer and don't like their money. It all adds up to people over-spending on their brew. That's pretty much Pat Burrell: flashy college career, top draft pick, solid numbers as a youngster and now he's an okay player who is severely overpaid, yet schmucks like me have this unrealistic vision of him as a much better player. Also, Heineken is a foreign beer, which for some people automatically makes it better. And Burrell is from Arkansas, which kind of is a foreign country...---------------------------------Eaton On DLShoulder inflammation? Sure, whatever, I could give a crap, as long as he's not pitching for a while.Now when his spot in the rotation comes around, the Phils might have a chance to pick up a win.---------------------------------DC Futility24 K's and 5 runs in 2 games.Ugh.But King Cole throws down tonight, so chalk up another series win for the Phightins. I guarantee it.

Hamels needs to pull us through this series because all those strikeouts are gonna kill us.

I am not surprised that the Nats have done well this series. They are 19-13 since the All-Star break, including 12-3 at home, where they have won five consecutive series. They have been tough to beat so if the King wins the Phils have done well.

From a commenter on BeerLeaguer: Meanwhile, the news about Offerman made me realize (for some reason) that he has become the sixth member of the 2005 Phillies to have been arrested and/or have had charges filed against them, following the lead of Marlon Byrd, Terry Adams, Jason Michaels, Ugueth Urbina, and Brett Myers. That's got to rival even the '83 Royals for some kind of twisted team record.

*I knew of Myers, Michaels, and Urbina, but was unaware of Adams and Byrd.

Spending an extra $250k for a potential pitcher is a drop in the bucket compared to paying Gavin Eaton $8 million for the crap fest he's been this year and the $10 million Freddy Garcia's lone win cost.

The Phils offense is slumping big time! From Phillies.com- The top four hitters went 1-for-13 with two walks and a single (by Howard), continuing a collective August slump that may coincide with Chase Utley's absence from the lineup. Rollins is 9-for-48 (.189) since Aug. 2, Iguchi is 2-for-21 (.095) since Aug. 9 and Pat Burrell is 6-for-32 (.188) since being moved into the third spot on Aug. 5.

Howard is 4-for-24 (.167) with a homer and four RBIs since Aug. 8, and is hitting (.202) since Utley broke his hand on July 26. The Phillies struck out 24 times in the first two games of the series.

SirAlden- I'm not so sure Happ would have been the right decision. He pitched poorly in his MLB debut and has just recently gotten back on track in Ottawa after a very rough 1st half of the season. Let him in Triple A and keep experiencing success, because last thing I want is this kid turning into a headcase, aka Gavin Floyd.

I'm on board with giving Durbin a start or two to see how he does. He had a couple of good starts and hasn't been bad out of the bullpen lately. Considering Happ's prior appearance for the big team, I'm okay with letting him season a bit with success at AAA. While it is unfair to suggest he'd be as much of a head case as Gavin Floyd, it's not a bad thing to try to avoid that happening again.

A few weeks ago there was some man-love for Jayson Stark on this blog - I just pulled this bite from his latest ESPN entry for sharing purposes:

We're not sure Manuel has much of a shot at being Manager of the Year, but there's now more of a chance the Phillies will bring him back than anyone expected. "That club is really growing on me," one scout said. "Charlie has done a great job, despite what their fans think. That team has the best makeup of any club in that division, even with all the injuries they've had. And that's a tribute to the manager."

After viewing the "Ladies and Gentleman" video on YouTube, I had to vote for that song... since the video features two women in a boxing ring punching each other. How could I not vote for a song that has a video in which a woman is getting hit when it comes to Myers?

Whenever Ryan Howard has 2 strikes, it's definite that he's going to strike out. Last night we had the bases loaded no outs and couldn't score 1 run after Chris Coste's single. The Phillies have never heard of a sac fly. And how come Ryan Howard always seems hesitant to throw to second when it seems that they have a chance for a doubleplay.

Just yesterday I was personally invited back to the infamous Phillies Phans Phorum by one of the moderators, Philly Chuck. I hadn't been on there since November, but since I got an email to come back I figured what the heck. Turns out they're still the same group of arrogant assholes they were in November. I swear these guys jerk off to stats, that seems to be all they care about. Bring something up that can't be statistically proven and it's bullshit in their eyes. For example, I commented on my observation of Howard's poor defense, but of course the stats don't necessarily back that up because there have been many could-be double plays or even easy groundballs a step to the left or right of him missed that have gone unscored an error, so they want no part of this discussion. They're like a bunch of fucking robots watching the game, I don't understand how they can even get pleasure out of it.

This was a personal message I received today from one of the moderators- (I deleted your phrase - which I saw as gratuitous and unnecessary - referencing "statbook" and "taboo."

Please do not generalize - particularly in a way that can be seen as derogatory or critical - about philliesphans in public posts. If you have a question or complaint about what is expected here, please bring it to the attention of PC or myself in a PM.)

Two out of three in Washington is nice (wish we could have gotten a sweep, but you take what you can get!). Thankfully the damn Mets and Braves lost tonight. You'd think at least one of those frigg'n teams would go on a little bit of a losing streak.

Is Gorzelanny Italian? His name sounds like something you could eat like a pizza. One large Gorzelanny please with anchovies and a coke. My background is Italian so its alright to make fun. He's been good this year but the Phils offense is better. Chop him up Phillies. Gotta keep winning.

Well, sad and proud to announce my return to Phillies Phans Phorum is over in 2 short days, as I've had my usage rights revoked. I got into an arguement about how strike outs are bad and defense does matter and of course that pissed them off because that didn't fit their outlook...whatever.